July 22, 2012 9:54 pm

With the recent incident of Marshawn Lynch’s DUI charge calling his availability for the season opener in Arizona into question, Paisley wanted to know who the most irreplaceable Seahawk player is.

It’s hard to argue against Lynch because of the way he ignited the running game in the second half of 2011. But what about someone like defensive end Red Bryant and how important he is to Seattle’s ability to stuff the run?

Paisley argued for Chris Clemons because the Seahawks have no other proven edge rusher. But in my opinion, Earl Thomas is the best player on the team, and allows the front seven to be more creative because of his ability to control things on the back end.

So who is Seattle’s most irreplaceable player? Vote in our poll below, and share your thoughts in the comments section.

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

Earl is special but Marshawn is just a freak. I’m sure Turbin will do well when ML gets suspended and Earl really is a unique talent, but earthquakes caused by humans just ain’t all that common. My vote is for The Beast.

We have seen what our defense can do against the run without Big Red. When he got injured in 2010 the defense was just plain painfull to watch. Our offense sucks, so losing Lynch will just make us suck a little more. Our defense is very solid, especially against the run, and losing such an important piece to your strongest part of the game will destroy a team. Big Red is a unique player and one that is hard to find anywhere else in the league. He is by far our most irreplacable player.

Thomas maybe the best player on the team, but he’s still just a safety. Deficiencies at safety can be hidden with Cover 2 or 3 schemes. Clemons is a niche player. Since Seattle’s scheme is unique, they can find that type of player from the scrap heaps of other teams who can’t use players like him. Just as Philly couldn’t use him.

I have to agree with Thomas, as well. One could argue that Carroll’s entire defensive premise is built around the FS position. Even last year when they all but abandoned the under front / Leo, we saw just how critical the seconday was to this defense, and their coverages all begin at FS. My 2 cents…

A good quarterback would be my vote as the only indispensable player in this TEAM sport. Any personal weaknesses at other positions can be somewhat masked other positions. My vote, however, goes to et.

This vote is for Okung and, IMO, I don’t think it’s really close. It boggles my mind that he wasn’t even a choice (other than “other”). We have a bunch of good players on defense and if any one of them go down, we’d still have plenty of good players on that side of the ball (in general – I agree it’d be hard as heck to replace a guy like ET or the vastly underrated Mebane though).

Great topic. It’s interesting to hear all of the different perspectives. I guess they all are important in their own way.

I admit, I forgot how much we struggled against the run when Big Red went down. It was devastating b/c we were just getting on a roll. We haven’t missed Thomas (knock on wood), so it’s a little hard to project what that’d be like.

What’s most interesting is if you asked the same question about any other team with a franchise QB, I can almost bet inevitably that the poll would come back with that QB at the top. Since we don’t have one (yet), it further illustrates how everyone really needs to be hitting on all cylinders for us to be successful.

I’m quite aware that Tjack hasn’t consistently displayed the kind of traits you want in a franchise QB and this year most likely is his last year to prove it.

Flynn comes from a good system and has won on a collegiate level, but I just get the feeling that he has too much of a noodle arm, but time will tell.

Again, my hope is that Russell Wilson wins the job and never looks back while the other two (3 if you include Portis) fight it out to be his back up. The sooner we can have a leader to rely on and right the ship, the better we’ll be off long term.

I love Big Red, don’t get me wrong, but I think Mebane is 100% equally important in stopping the run than he is due to the position he plays. People forget that Mebane also missed about a month a few years ago and only credit the stout running game to Big Red (Cole also missed time, which was 3/4 of the starting DL for awhile), which I think is wrong to a degree.

If the Seahawks lose Mebane or Big Red, the dynamic of this team greatly changes for the worse with respect to stopping the opposing run game.

If anyone asked me the player they most wanted to play and be healthy in all 16 games though, I’d say Okung #1, Sidney Rice #2 (both will make Flynn/Wilson that much better!). The sad thing is that many of us haven’t said Rice simply b/c we’re worried or expecting him to miss games. Come on Sidney, stay healthy and show us your Pro Bowl stuff! He’s a top 5 WR in the NFL if he’s healthy!

Hasselwreck?! Maan, really?
‘Ol Matty wouldn’t have survived to see game 6 if he were a Hawk w/the O-Line play the way it was at that point. look at Matts over all stats from last season, really close to the numbers TJ put up and Matt had an O-Line (albeit not much of a running attack). Matty coulda done well once the Line got it’s collective act together, that could’ve/would’ve been fun to see.
My choice is Big Red, take him outta line up and the “D” is giving up chunks of yards, how soon peeps forget about how we missed our top “D” linemen when they are out for extended periods. Not to diminish what ET does for team, but Big Red’s don’t come along and get it done that often.

Hasn’t Chris Clemmons been replaced? He should be replaced in the poll by Okung

I vote Red however. I wanted to say Okung, but they were able to run the ball w/o him at the end of last year so his replacement is already proven and rostered. No other player can do what Red does, and there are plenty of stats to back that up.

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